Bubba left a budget surplus to Shrub

[SHRED]

Shrub reduced the top tax rate from 39% to 36% and lowered the Capital Gains tax (for those hanging by the pool and collecting dividend checks) from around 30% to 15%.
Then Shrub started two "off budget" wars.
Shrub bankrupted this nation.

Lets roll back the "Bush tax cuts" and get the hell out of these "wars".

Then lets go the next step and roll back the Reagan tax cuts and use the revenue to rebuild our infrastructure which will be a real stimulus and fully fund our education system K-12 and higher education.


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[arbusto_baboso]

1. Good luck getting that past the House. even if a majority of Americans DO want it.

We see how Americans wants and needs register wuith the political classes, don't we?

[Jim Lane]

2. Your post relates to the ongoing Social Security debate

People on DU frequently state that Social Security doesn't add to the deficit.

The fact is that there are two ways of viewing the federal budget, each having some validity depending on your purpose. You can include Social Security (a unified federal budget), or treat it as separate. Presidents of both parties have preferred the unified budget because, since the 1983 amendments, Social Security has shown a large current-year surplus. (Social Security taxes collected exceed benefits paid, as the system stockpiles resources in anticipation of baby boomers' retirements.)

The huge surplus in Clinton's final year was a surplus on the unified budget. This method of accounting looks only at current receipts and expenditures, without taking account of the corresponding out-year obligation to pay benefits when current workers retire.

The consequence is that, if you use the unified budget, then Social Security did reduce the deficit over the last quarter century and will increase the deficit in the future years when its expenditures exceed revenues.

I don't favor Social Security cuts. My point is only that we're being somewhat inconsistent if we tout Clinton's huge budget surplus while simultaneously denying any connection between Social Security and the deficit.